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“Cynthia, we’ve gone over this,” Diantha sighs. “You can’t murder people for being jerks.”
Before Diantha had even arrived in Pasio, she’d heard of stories of Cynthia in Kalos—the countless victims of the merciless Sinnoh Champion and her intimidating Garchomp. When she first met Cynthia, Diantha thought that she was nothing like that—having been almost shy to approach Diantha at all, which she thought was absolutely adorable.
Now, though? She realized that everyone was right, but not for the right reasons.
“He threatened you. That’s well outside the territory of being a jerk.”
“He was just saying that. It was an empty threat.”
Cynthia gives her a look that Diantha recognizes immediately as downright homicidal. Which is fair, because that was about the same way she’d felt when the Pokemon collector had grilled her for four hours straight over her shiny Diancie, eventually even threatening her for them. But in the end, she still had Diancie and she was safe, so…
“Darling, I’m fine,” she pleads. “Really. I hardly think a death sentence is warranted here.”
“I think it is,” Cynthia shoots back. “But fine. How long did he try for? A day? That’s how long he should stay in the Distortion World. Cyrus was there for, what, a few years, and he was perfectly fine.”
Diantha facepalms. “I distinctly recall you telling me that your Cyrus died in there, and that the Cyrus Hoopa brought is not from our universe.”
Cynthia shrugs. “Minor detail. I’m sure he’ll survive for a day.”
“If Giratina has even a fraction of your bloodthirst, he’ll be dead in five minutes.”
“Good.”
“No, not good!” Diantha throws her hands up exasperatedly. “Promise me that you will not kill him.”
Cynthia glares at her.
“Fine,” Cynthia says eventually. “I promise.”
Diantha leans forwards to give her a small peck on the lips. “Thank you,” she says, pulling away. “Now come on. I’m exhausted, and I’d like to go to sleep with a beautiful woman.”
Cynthia smiles softly as she lets Diantha tug her along to their bedroom.
Diantha wakes up in the middle of the night to find Cynthia gone.
She should’ve known. Cynthia had relented way too easily—there was no way she hadn’t had some chaotic plan in mind for the collector.
Glancing quickly at the empty side of the bed, she finds a note in Cynthia’s handwriting.
Couldn’t sleep. Went out for a bit with Diancie, Garchomp, and Giratina. I’ll be back soon.
She shakes her head. What exactly had Cynthia planned? And why did she take Diancie with her?
She throws on her clothes and grabs Gardevoir’s Pokeball before hurriedly leaving the apartment.
As it turns out, Cynthia’s idea was exactly as chaotic as Diantha thought. By the time she’d arrived, she found the Pokemon collector on his back, staring wide-eyed at Giratina, who was silently glaring back down at him. Garchomp was beside them, her face twisted into what Diantha assumed was disgust. Diancie was behind Cynthia, peeking curiously at the collector from behind Cynthia’s legs.
She’d rushed over to Diancie, who trilled happily upon seeing her, before pointedly asking Cynthia what she’d done.
“You mean to tell me you lured him out by using Diancie as bait, then threatened to have Garchomp chop his head off and feed him to Giratina?”
Cynthia gives her a sheepish smile. “If I said ‘no’ now would you believe me?”
“Absolutely not, ” Diantha retorts, crossing her arms. “Never do anything like this ever again.”
“You said not to kill anyone. I only threatened him.”
At this, the collector, who Diantha had completely forgotten was still nearby, perks up. “So can I go?”
“No,” Cynthia and Diantha say in unison.
“Not yet,” Diantha adds.
The collector smirks. “What are you going to do? Kill me? Oh wait, you can’t.”
Diantha walks over and leans forwards. Considering her whole brand and how it’s been years since she last played an intimidating character, she’s bound to be a little rusty and slightly unconvincing, but… “I said she couldn’t kill you. But I still can.”
Evidently, it was good enough. The smug look on his face instantly dissipated into fear.
After he’d scurried off, she closes her eyes and relaxes. “Xerneas’ antlers, this is why I don’t play scary characters.”
She hears Cynthia giggle behind her. “Yeah, that was much more adorable than scary.”
Diantha opens her eyes and turns back to Cynthia, relieved. “Well, it worked out.”
“It didn’t work out. Now everyone’s going to find out that someone survived one of my murder attempts,” Cynthia grumbles. “He’s absolutely the type of person to gloat about it.”
Diantha chuckles. “You think anyone’s going to believe him? Your plan was so awful that they’ll just think he made it up.”
Cynthia scoffs. “It was not that terrible.”
“Sure it wasn’t.” Diantha throws an arm over Cynthia’s back. “Have you gotten your fill now?”
“Yeah,” Cynthia replies.
On the way back, all Diantha could think of was just how incredibly endearing and sweet Cynthia was in her own way, murderous tendencies and all.